Chapter 16

"Okay, we're in the forest, what now?" Nora asked.

Yeah, that's still kind of a work in progress... "I'm open to ideas?" I said with a shrug.

"What?!" Jaune exclaimed.

Ren narrowed his eyes darted forward without another word towards the Deathstalker.

"Hey wait!"

The grimm snapped its pincers at the oncoming target. Relaxing his body, Ren leaped forward and spun like a twisting arrow, narrowly making it through the gap in the pincers before they snapped shut. He somersaulted in the air peppering the Deathstalker with shots.

"That won't work! If Nora's grenades didn't do the trick what makes you think your pea-shooters will?"

The grimm swung its stinger towards Ren the second he landed.

"Look out!"

Me, Jaune, and Nora all responded running in to aid him. Ren's hand's glowed with a magenta light as he caught the stinger with his bare hands, faltering against the strength of the creature. The Deathstalker hesitated for a second then snatched Ren up with his pincers while he was busy holding off the stinger. Once more it raised its stinger to its helpless victim and its tail darted forward.

"Oh no you DON'T!" I raised my spear blocking the stinger again, narrowly catching it by the tip of the stinger point. "Guh..." 'Holy cow!' I could feel my entire BODY absolutely trembling, having to give every possible ounce of strength just to hold off its attack.

"HAAA!" Nora jumped over me in my defending position and slammed her hammer on top of the Deathstalker's head. The grimm loosened its grip on Ren due to the impact, allowing him to pull himself free and jump back. I was still struggling with the stinger when I saw a large black claw heading my way.

"Shit!"

Jaune stepped in front of me, deflecting the claw with his shield. He then stepped forward and slashed the Deathstalker in the face with his sword.

"SCRAAAAAAAAAAAWWWW!"

The grimm let out a shriek and took a few steps backward while I stared in shock.

You're kidding me, THAT somehow hurt it!? My joy was short-lived when the Deathstalker slammed Jaune with its other pincer, battering him like a rag doll.

"JAUNE!"

I cast a glance back at Ren and Nora, who gave me a quick nod to go check on him while they kept its attention. Jaune lay motionless on the grass face-down, still not getting up after being hit. To my terror, as I approached, I noticed a small puddle of red by his head. "No..." I immediately got on the ground, turning him over. A small gash had opened up on the side of his temple causing blood to seep out of his head. "This doesn't make sense! Jaune! Jaune!"

Jaune's eyes weakly fluttered open at my shouting voice. "Oh...hey..." he said still dazed. "Did you catch the license plate of that bus..."

What's going on?! Jaune shouldn't have been pulverized by an attack like that! His aura should've protected him! Unless... "Jaune!" I said trying to shake him back to his senses. "Did Pyrrha unlock your aura yet?"

His eyes looked back at me in confusion. "What? Aura?"

Oh my god...Jaune hasn't had his aura unlocked! He never met Pyrrha in the forest! He never met her because of ME! It's my fault Jaune got hurt! I grunted, hoisting Jaune's shoulder over my head, walking him over to a nearby tree and setting him against it.

"Ah...don't worry about me...I'll be on my feet...in no time..."

"No. Jaune, rest here for a moment, when you get your strength back I want you to fall back."

"But-"

"No buts!" I snapped. Glancing over back at the Deathstalker, Ren and Nora were having trouble with the two of us gone. "Listen Jaune. I don't have time to explain it, but you don't have aura right now. No aura, no fighting. PERIOD." I left the injured Jaune on the tree, picking up my spear, and returning to the battle. While I felt bad sending him off like that, a question lingered in my mind as I returned. How did a simple sword strike from Jaune manage to hurt the Deathstalker so badly?

"Where's Jaune?" Nora asked landing right beside me after an attack.

"He's resting. Jaune's in no condition to fight right now. We'll somehow have to manage."

"Well that's...less than good."

Ren dodged a pincer attack, back-flipping, and joined us panting heavily.

"This thing has to have a weakness." Ren said glaring at the Deathstalker. "If this thing really was unbeatable I doubt the headmaster would allow us to fight it."

"You'd be surprised what the headmaster allows." I grumbled, shaking my head. "Anyway, a weakness..."

Looking at the Deathstalker, there wasn't a single scratch on its face. Despite this, it cried out in pain when attacked and stepped back. But what would...

"The eyes!" Jaune must've accidentally hit one when he struck its face. Ren's right. If this thing really was completely armored from head to toe then it would be almost impossible for it to move. "Ren, think you can hit its eyes?"

He glanced at me still out of breath and sweating a bit. After thinking for a moment, gave a quick nod without another word.

'Ren's really pushing himself here, we'd better hurry up and try to finish this pretty soon...' "This isn't going to be easy, I need you two to take that grimm's attention so I can get close to it. There's something that I need to see for myself. But if Ren can hit the eyes, that just might give me the opening I need." Ren readjusted his pistols with a click while Nora and I stood at the ready.

"Go!"

The three of us sprinted off towards our target. The Deathstalker's claws swung towards me. I quickly ducked under it, and kept running. The stinger wasn't far after I'd passed the claws, but...for some reason I wasn't afraid as it closed in. If anything I was feeling...excited. I wonder why that is. Maybe I was hopped up on adrenaline, or maybe I'd finally lost my mind due to the stress of so many life and death encounters...

"Gotcha covered Aero!"

Nora swung her hammer like a bat, deflecting the stinger while Ren raised his pistols and fired. The shots streaked past my body with surprising accuracy, missing me and peppering the eyes of the Deathstalker. The large grimm shrieked and raised its claws to shield its face, stepping backward. I took this opportunity to zip-line to the nearest tree with my grappling spear.

"Now let's see..." I looked down at the briefly occupied creature. "I knew it!"

The back of the Deathstalker was heavily armored but it wasn't completely armored. The white shell-like parts on its back were large segments joined together with a VERY thin line of an unarmored area where the joints met. This was exactly what I'd been hoping for, but hitting it would like be threading a needle.

'It's moving around too much, I can't hit it at this rate.' "Nora, do you have any more grenades?" I called down from the tree.

"Just one."

"Try and shoot in front of that thing's face"

Nora loaded Magnhild and aimed, firing the last of her rounds causing a pink explosion in front of the Deathstalker. Briefly unable to see with the cloud in front of it the creature paused.

"NOW!" I jumped off of the tree above the grimm with my spear tightly clenched in both hands. Adding the momentum of my drop to the attack, I narrowly drove the spear into one of the small spaces between its segments, sinking in the spear by about a foot. "Ha! Eat that you stupi-WHOOOOOOAAA."

The grimm thrashed under me, throwing me off of it with my spear still lodged in its back. I landed right in front of it as the smokescreen disappeared.

"AERO!"

The glowing stinger flashed towards me as I closed my eyes, desperately covering my face with my hands. Hearing a loud metallic sound, I opened my eyes to see Jaune standing in front of me with both hands on the shield, fending off the attack. "Jaune?!"